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<p>This part is an implementation of the FAT12/16/32-filesystem based on raw 
  access. You can create devices with it and use them as a file system with direct 
  access to the underlying storage. The type of the devices can be RAM, RAF, or 
  Native.</p>
<ol>
  <li>RAM-devices will be created directly in the memory of your system.</li>
  <li>RAF-devices will be created as a file on your hard disk.</li>
  <li>With Native-devices you have raw (direct) access to your hard disk. </li>
</ol>
<p>The first two types of devices can be created by everybody, for the last one 
  you need administrator access to your computer. To create a native-device the 
  name of the device must equal the system dependant name of the device you want 
  to access. For Unix-systems to access the first floppy device the name of the 
  device must be <i>/dev/fd0.</i> For Windows-systems it's <i>a:</i>. You have 
  to be very carefully and you should know what you are doing, because all information 
  of the device that you access as native device get lost. They will be overwritten 
  by the new file system. To use the native-device you need a Win2000, NT, XP, 
  or a Unix/Linux system.</p>
<p>Information about each device except the RAM-device that you create will be 
  stored in a text-file. So you don't need to remember all the device names and 
  types that you create. If you don't specify the file to store all this device 
  information a default file will be used. The default filename is <i>filesystem.txt</i>. 
  Normally you don't need to manipulate this file manually, because this program
  is able to manipulate the file. In case you want to manipulate it manually here 
  is the format specification: Each line contains information about one device. 
  The first string is the name of the device. The second string is the size in 
  bytes of the device and the last string of each line is the type of the device 
  (<i>RAM, RAF, Native</i>). All strings are separated by a tabular sign and each 
  line must end with a <i>cr</i> and <i>lf</i>.</p>
<p>Independent of the device type there are restrictions about the size in blocks 
  for each FAT-type. One block has a fixed size of 512 bytes. The smallest devices 
  can be made as a FAT12-filesystem. The maximum number of blocks for that file system 
  is 4084. A FAT16-filesystem has a minimum size of 32680 blocks and maximum size 
  of 4194304 blocks. For a FAT32-filesystem you must spend at least 532480 number 
  of blocks.</p>
<p>Since you have raw (direct) access to the underlying storage without a buffer 
  of your 'real' file system you should not worry if some operations take a longer 
  time than you are used to. You should take the chance to implement a benchmark 
  for disk access or whatever, with the guarantee that no system buffer fakes 
  your results.</p>
<p>There is another thing you should know. Since you are able to store a RAF-device 
  on an other device (or path) than your working device (and path), the name of 
  your created device exists of components of a 'real' device name, i.e. your 
  working directory is 'c:\xxl' and you create a RAF-device 'fat12' at 'd:\dir'' 
  then the 'real' name of the device is 'd:\dir\fat12' except than 'fat12'. This 
  is exactly the name shown at the device tree. But if you use the RawExplorer 
  to operate on a device you should always use the name 'fat12' only, since this 
  is the interior name of the device. For example if you want to create a file 
  'text.dat' on your device 'd:\dir\fat12' and you are asked for the device name 
  you should enter 'fat12', since the interior path is 'fat12:\text.dat' and not 
  'd:\dir\fat12\text.dat'. Otherwise the file system will handle 'dir' and 'fat12' 
  as folders.</p>

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